Introduction

On Sept. 21, 2011, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced the award of $9 million in grants to 42 organizations to expand citizenship preparation programs for permanent residents. This funding will support those on the path toward U.S. citizenship by building capacity in communities to meet the demand for citizenship preparation services.

Background

Through funding provided under the Department of Defense and Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act of 2011 (Public Law 112-10), USCIS was able to enhance the Citizenship and Integration Grant Program and other immigrant integration initiatives. The fiscal year (FY) 2011 grant program includes three competitive funding opportunities and $9 million to support citizenship preparation services for permanent residents.

The first opportunity provides funding for local citizenship instruction programs to prepare permanent residents for the civics and English (reading, writing and speaking) components of the naturalization test. The second opportunity supports citizenship instruction as well as naturalization application services within the scope of the authorized practice of immigration law. The third opportunity increases the capacity of members or affiliates of national organizations to provide citizenship preparation services in communities across the country. The period of performance for awards under each of the three categories is two years.

This is the third year in which competitive grant funding has been awarded to organizations for the purpose of supporting citizenship preparation efforts. In FY 2009, USCIS awarded 13 organizations a total of $1.2 million to expand citizenship preparation programs, and in FY 2010 nearly $8.1 million was awarded to 56 organizations providing services at 78 sites across the country.

Recipient Organizations

Citizenship instruction only: Recipients represent a range of public or private nonprofit organizations with recent experience providing citizenship instruction to immigrants. They include public school systems, colleges, community and faith-based groups, adult education organizations, public libraries and literacy organizations.

Citizenship instruction and naturalization-application services: Recipients represent a range of public or private nonprofit organizations with recent experience providing citizenship instruction and naturalization application services to immigrants within the scope of the authorized practice of immigration law. They include public school systems, colleges, community and faith-based groups, adult education organizations, public libraries and literacy organizations.

The National Capacity Building Grant Program: Recipients are national immigrant-serving organizations that have a member or affiliate structure. Under this grant program, applicants selected four members or affiliates as subapplicants. The national organizations will provide technical assistance to increase the long-term capacity of the subapplicants to provide citizenship instruction and naturalization-application services in their local communities.

Recipient organizations are geographically diverse and represent both traditional immigrant destinations and new immigration gateways across 27 states and the District of Columbia. Grant recipients plan to provide citizenship instruction and naturalization application preparation services to approximately 20,000 permanent residents from nearly 90 countries including Mexico, China, El Salvador, Haiti, Vietnam, Somalia, Burma and Bhutan. Grant recipients represent:

All of the top 10 states with the largest permanent resident populations eligible to naturalize (California, New York, Texas, Florida, New Jersey, Illinois, Massachusetts, Virginia, Washington and Arizona);

Eight of the top 10 states with the largest growth in the proportion of foreign-born residents since 2000 (Maryland, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Texas, Virginia, Massachusetts and Florida);

The top 19 states with the largest number of annual naturalizations (California, New York, Florida, Texas, New Jersey, Illinois, Massachusetts, Georgia, Virginia, Washington, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona, North Carolina, Minnesota, Ohio, Connecticut and Colorado); and

Ten of the 12 metropolitan areas with the greatest numbers of new permanent residents in the past 10 years (New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Houston, Dallas, San Diego and Atlanta).

Review Process

USCIS conducted a thorough review of more than 300 eligible applications received for consideration. Each proposal was evaluated by a three-member team comprised of both internal USCIS reviewers and external subject matter experts. Applications were scored numerically using published evaluation criteria and rank ordered. A USCIS internal review panel determined the finalists based on the rank order and published strategic program priorities.

Contact Information

For additional information on the FY 2011 Citizenship and Integration Grant Program, please contact the USCIS Office of Citizenship by phone at 202-272-1280 or by email at citizenshipgrantprogram@dhs.gov. To learn more about applying for federal funding opportunities, please visit www.grants.gov or contact the Grants.gov support line at 800-518-4726.